


Slippery Slope

by breeisonfire



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: M/M, spoilers for 3x18 Avalanche, technically this is pre-relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 13:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19813021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breeisonfire/pseuds/breeisonfire
Summary: Alan needs Gordon's advice on how to ask someone out.





	Slippery Slope

**Author's Note:**

> I shipped them before they met and now they have met and no one can STOP ME.

This is a bad plan. This is very much a bad plan.

Alan’s paused outside of Gordon’s bedroom door, where he’s been standing for the past five minutes, trying to talk himself into knocking. He needs advice and Gordon’s _probably_ his best bet, although Alan’s not entirely sure he wants to talk to _any_ of his brothers about this. Or anyone really. Maybe it’s better if he doesn’t do this. Maybe he shouldn’t even bother.

Maybe the ground could actually open up and swallow him, because no one’s even around and his face is already heating up. Unbelievable.

He’s about to turn around and head to his room to shoot some zombies and/or float out of existence for the next few hours when Gordon’s door opens and said brother is standing in front of him, eyebrows raised.

“You gonna just stand out here for the rest of the night?”

Alan stares at him. His brain is blank for many reasons, but the most important one is that Gordon is _standing_. Sure, he’s leaning heavily on his good leg and the doorframe and doesn’t seem very steady, but he’s on his own two feet, and holy _shit_. This is big.

Those first few days after they’d rescued Gordon, no one had been sure if he would ever recover fully. There had been one doctor who had taken Grandma aside and well - Alan hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but he’d overheard all the same. The doctor had expressed her concerns about the condition Gordon was in and cautioned that it was possible that he may never be able to walk unassisted again. There’d been a lot of damage done to his body, she’d said, and they couldn’t expect miracles.

Grandma had seemed undeterred by her words. _“Tracys don’t expect miracles,”_ she’d said. _“We make them.”_

Looking at Gordon now, standing in his doorway, a tired but mischievous grin on his face, Alan knows Grandma was one hundred percent right.

“What the _hell_ ,” he says, feeling his own face break into a grin. “When did this happen?”

“A few days ago,” Gordon says. “I’m supposed to walk a little bit each day, according to my physical therapist.”

He makes a face. “Hurts like hell, though.”

“I bet,” Alan says. “Why didn’t you tell any of us?”

“I just told you, didn’t I?” Gordon says, moving so Alan can get into the room. He seems incredibly pleased with himself, and Alan can’t help but laugh.

“Who else knows?” he asks, ducking under Gordon’s good arm so he can lean on him. Gordon does so without prompting, which speaks to how much this probably took out of him. Alan can’t blame him for doing it, though. Not in slightest.

This is amazing. He feels lighter than he has in a while, and he can’t imagine how _Gordon_ feels. _He_ wants to yell in excitement and maybe throw a party, and it’s not even his accomplishment.

“Grandma,” Gordon says. “Oh, and Lady Penelope.”

He’s probably trying to sound casual, but he misses by a mile. His feelings towards Lady Penelope have never been a secret, though her own feelings in return are somewhat new territory, at least to Alan. To be fair, he doesn’t see her all that often outside of IR business, and even then, it’s usually over the comm. But since Gordon’s injury, he’s seen more of her (and Parker, and Sherbet) in person than he had in the six months beforehand. Twice over, he’s pretty sure.

It’s very obvious to everyone just _why_ that is, and Alan’s happy for Gordon. He really is. But the mention of their London Agent just reminds Alan what he’d come to talk to Gordon about, and he feels his face heat up again.

Unfortunately, Gordon notices. Alan can feel his eyes on him as he helps him get settled on his bed. He could make a run for it, but Gordon would probably take that as a challenge and sic someone else on him, probably Grandma, and he’s pretty sure that’d be even more humiliating. Better to just give in and make it as painless as possible.

 _God_ , this is ridiculous.

“Okay,” Gordon finally says. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate you coming and gracing me with your delightful presence, but I am just a little bit concerned, because your face is almost the same color as your ‘bird. Call me crazy, but that doesn’t exactly seem healthy.”

Alan groans and lowers himself to sit at the foot of the bed. “It’s stupid.”

“Okay,” Gordon says.

“I mean, _really_ stupid.”

“Yeah, you said.”

“No, Gordo, I mean it, it’s really, _really_ stupid.”

“Alan,” Gordon says, leaning forward a bit. “Just spit it out, for the love of God.”

Alan hesitates, then lets himself fall backwards so he’s lying on the bed, his legs hanging off. From this position, he can stare at the ceiling, and only barely sees Gordon out of the corner of his eye.

“It’s stupid,” he says again.

“I can guarantee you I’ve said stupider,” Gordon says. Alan can’t help his laugh and feels just a tiny bit better.

“Maybe,” he says. “It’s just -.”

He stops, because he has _no_ idea how to approach this. This isn’t exactly a new thing for him, but he’s in a unique position this time around because there’s a possibility of something actually coming from it. And _that_ is new. Incredibly new. Bafflingly new. Totally, bizarrely, unbelievably -.

“Alan,” Gordon’s voice interrupts his thoughts. “I can literally _hear_ you overthinking this. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”

Alan sighs. He _knows_ that, but it doesn’t make it easier. “Okay, okay. It’s just that I’ve been kind of wondering, you know, how to _asksomeoneonadate._ ”

He doesn’t dare look at Gordon, feeling like his face is on fire. He’s tried to figure this out on his own, but everything just feels like he’s going to mess it up. Gordon’s gone on dates in the past, he’s gone on _many_ , and even if he’s not actually going out with Lady Penelope yet, they can all tell it’s only a matter of time. Clearly he’s got some kind of insight to this, and Alan is desperate at this point.

He hears Gordon exhale slowly. “This is what’s been bothering you?”

Alan nods.

“Oh, man,” Gordon says. “You had me really worried, Al. I thought it was going to be something like, I dunno, you want to run away and join the circus.”

Alan blinks, then turns his head to look at Gordon. “The _circus_?”

Gordon shrugs, though Alan notices he only uses one shoulder. “I dunno, you’re a weird kid, it could happen.”

Alan huffs. “Our life is already a circus.”

Gordon laughs. “Fair enough. Is this about Brandon Berrenger?”

Alan freezes. “Uh, what? No!”

His voice comes out as a squeak, and Gordon’s amused look is almost pitying. Alan turns his head away from Gordon, but it doesn’t feel like enough, so he rolls over, away from Gordon. Right off the bed. Oops.

He hits the ground with an “Oof.” Thankfully, he’s not hurt, though he wonders if he can fake an injury to exit this conversation as fast as possible. Probably not. Gordon’s not likely to back down now, and he’ll play dirty. Why did Alan think this was a good idea in the first place?

“Al?” Gordon says. “You okay?”

“Define ‘okay,’” Alan says, willing his face to cool down. If he keeps this up, he won’t even need a heat bank the next time there’s an avalanche.

Yeah, okay, not a helpful train of thought, considering that had been the whole _start_ of this mess. If he hadn’t been on that rescue, he’d probably not have started this friendship with Brandon Berrenger, and he’d still be living his life blissfully unaware of just how funny Brandon was when he wasn’t performing for a camera.

Oh, _God_ , he’s so screwed.

“You planning on getting off the floor any time soon?” Gordon asks.

“No,” Alan says. “I live here now.”

He hears Gordon snort. “Okay, then. You still want my advice?”

Damnit. “No.”

“You’re not as good of a liar as you think you are,” Gordon says.

 _Damnit_. “Says you.”

“Yeah, says me, I literally just did,” Gordon says. “You’re not getting out of this, stop trying to deflect. Brandon, huh?”

Damn _it_. “Maybe.”

“I’m not gonna make fun of you,” Gordon says. “Come on, kid, either you get up here or I come down there. Your choice, but it’ll hurt one of us less. You know I’ll follow through.”

Alan’s tempted to not move, but he knows Gordon’s telling the truth. He absolutely will come down to the floor, despite how much it’d probably hurt him, and Alan groans. He pushes himself up to seated position and then up to his feet. Gordon’s half-raised off the bed, like he’d expected to actually have to make his way to the floor, and he grins at Alan.

“Thank you,” he says. “Now, come, sit, tell ole’ Gordon your troubles.”

Alan rolls his eyes as he sits back on the bed. “You’re not really that much older than me.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Gordon says. “Am I going to have to drag this out of you? You’re the one who was coming to talk to me, that implies that you _wanted_ to talk about this.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Alan says.

“You probably weren’t,” Gordon says, grinning again. “Come on, Al, tell me. You’ve heard plenty from me about Lady Penelope, I’m pretty sure I owe you some non-judgemental listening time. Or at least only minimally-judgemental.”

Alan sighs. He doesn’t necessarily want to talk about this, but then again, he _really_ does. He feels like he’s about to explode. He doesn’t really know how he feels, and it’s confusing and annoying, and some part of him just wants to yell.

Gordon’s been watching him, and he raises an eyebrow. “Wow, you got it bad, huh?”

“I - what?” Alan blinks, but Gordon just shifts his position on the bed, looking like he’s getting more comfortable, and he gestures for Alan to do the same. Alan hesitates, wondering what’s going on, but Gordon looks sincere. He turns so he’s facing Gordon, crossing his legs.

“Okay,” Gordon says. “From the beginning. When did this start?”

“Uh,” Alan feels his face turning red _again_ , why is this _happening_. “I guess - you remember the avalanche rescue?”

“Uh, yeah,” Gordon says. “Kinda hard to forget. You were pretty excited. That vlog was golden. I still don’t understand why Virgil chose to tell Brandon’s viewers to remember to brush their teeth.”

“He thought it was funny,” Alan says. “I’m pretty sure he was making fun of me.”

Gordon snorts. “Right. Anyway, continue?”

“Oh, yeah,” Alan says. “Brandon gave me his number. I think he was planning on asking if I would give him a shout-out or something, but we ended up talking, and it turns out we play the same games, and so we started playing together and talking over headset.”

“Oh?” there’s an interested look in Gordon’s eyes. It’s almost enough to make Alan suspicious, but at the same time, he’s been dying to tell someone all of this.

“Yeah,” he says. “He’s not the same off-camera as he is in his vlog. He’s quieter, for one, and he’s not as dumb as he seems. He’s actually really funny, and smart? Like he knows how the business side of stuff works. I think that’s how he’s made it so far as a vlogger, because he knows how to get views and sponsorships and stuff. And he’s got a pilot license, he got it as soon as he was able to, on his own. That’s pretty cool, right?”

“Very cool,” Gordon agrees, and he’s definitely just indulging Alan at this point, but he can’t bring himself to care. Gordon’s right, he _does_ owe Alan some listening time, and now that he’s started, he can’t stop.

“And he’s big on charity work. He’s got two that he does major work for, like he does fundraising and appearances for them. One’s for cancer research, and he helped them raise over ten thousand dollars a few months ago! He’s been almost as many places as we have, but he hasn’t been to space yet. He thinks it’s pretty cool and wants to go, though. I made him promise not to go to space on some half-baked scheme of his bosses’, because I really don’t want Brandon to get hurt because of something Lemaire cooked up, you know?”

“Right,” Gordon nods.

“He’s only a few months older than me,” Alan continues. “And he was considering to go to college, but instead he’s just vlogging full-time, since he’s good at it and makes a good living off of it. And we were talking about what we’d be doing if we didn’t have the jobs we already do, and he said he’d probably be a pilot, like his dad had been.”

Alan can see Gordon catch on to the past tense, and he sucks in a breath. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Alan says.

“And all of this led to you wanting to ask him out, how?” Gordon asks.

Alan shrugs. “I dunno, he just seems nice? And cool? And we like a lot of the same stuff, he doesn’t think it’s stupid when I get excited, and he thinks our job is cool but it’s not all we talk about.”

Gordon narrows his eyes. “Is that it?”

“Yes,” Alan says. It’s not, but the rest is stuff he’d really rather not talk about. At all, ever, to anyone. Not to Gordon, not to his family, especially _never_ to Brandon.

Gordon clearly doesn’t believe him. Alan feels like he’s about to combust on the spot, but finally Gordon nods and says, “Why haven’t you asked him out already, then?”

“I don’t know how!” Alan nearly shouts, throwing his arms out. “What am I supposed to do, just ask him if he wants to go on a date?”

“Yeah, that would be the easiest way to do it,” Gordon says dryly.

“I can’t just do that!” Alan protests.

“Why not?” Gordon asks, leaning back against his pillows.

“What if he doesn’t want to?” Alan asks. “Or what if I mess it up! Or what if he says yes, but then when we try to go, it turns out he doesn’t think it’s a date and I’m an idiot! Or what if he thinks I’m making fun of him, or it weirds him out, or - or -.”

“Holy shit, Al,” Gordon interrupts him. “Calm down, okay?”

“Easy for you to say!” Alan says. “I can’t calm down!”

“You’re gonna have to, or someone’s gonna hear and come ask what’s going on,” Gordon says. “And I’m just saying, I have no idea what to say and you’re definitely not on your lying game today, so unless you want to spill this out to Grandma or Scott, you should probably breathe.”

Alan stares at him for a long moment, then groans. He falls forward, burying his face in Gordon’s comforter.

“This is so _stupid_ ,” he complains, his voice muffled.

“Yeah, but we’ve all been there,” Gordon says. “Well, maybe not John, but he’s got his own things to worry about.”

Alan snorts. “Yeah, well, he’s lucky.”

He feels Gordon pat his head. “If you say so. Now, when’s the next time you plan on talking to Brandon?”

“Probably later tonight, if I don’t get called out on a rescue,” Alan says. He lifts his face up and looks at Gordon. “Oh, man, what if we _do_ get to go on a date and I get called back in the middle of it?”

“Occupational hazard,” Gordon says. “I’m sure Brandon would understand. Or we can talk to Scott. Grandma would definitely be on your side.”

Alan considers that for a second, then puts his face back down on the bed. “This is too much work.”

“Nah, you’re just thinking too hard,” Gordon says. “Later tonight, then. What are you guys going to do?”

“Play some _Cavern Quest_ ,” Alan says. “He’s never played it before, so I made a new character and we’ve been playing through it together.”

“Oh, wow,” Gordon says. “You made a new character for this guy? You really _do_ like him.”

He’s clearly teasing, and Alan isn’t sure if he’s grateful or wants to punch Gordon. Probably a little bit of both.

“What would you ask him to do?” Gordon asks.

Alan pushes his face further into the bed as he thinks on it. He’s had a few ideas, but each of them feel as lame as the last. Or maybe he’s overthinking _this_ , too. He probably is.

“I dunno,” he says. “It’d depend on our schedules.”

He can almost feel Gordon’s wince. “Yeah, that’s gonna be difficult, huh? Your schedule is already so erratic, and who knows about his.”

Alan deflates slightly. “Yeah.”

He feels a thump on the back of his head and flinches, lifting his head to glare at Gordon. “Hey!”

Gordon isn’t even a little bit apologetic. “Don’t get discouraged now. Find out his schedule, then I’ll help you talk to Grandma. Deal?”

Okay, he still kind of wants to punch Gordon, but he also really wants to hug him. “Deal.”

“Cool,” Gordon says. “Then all that’s really left is for you to actually _ask_ him.”

Alan feels his eyes widen. “Oh. Right.”

Gordon stares at him. “You look like you’re about to be sick.”

“That’s a very real possibility,” Alan admits.

“Don’t do it on my bed,” Gordon says. “And you don’t need to worry so much. All you have to do is ask him if he wants to go on a date sometime. That’s it. If he says no, then he says no. If he says yes, then you go from there. Figure out his schedule, come talk to me, and I’ll help you figure it out. Got it?”

Alan really wants to say yes, but it gets stuck in his throat and he groans instead. “Why is this so hard?”

“You’re making it this hard,” Gordon tells him. “Think about it this way. You like Brandon, right?”

“Yeah,” Alan says.

“You want to go on a date with him, right?”

“Yeah,” Alan says again, trying hard not to blush again. He doesn’t succeed.

“Then ask him,” Gordon says. “Don’t think too hard about it. Just do it.”

Alan grimaces. Gordon’s right. He knows Gordon’s right. He just doesn’t have faith in his ability to actually do it. He’s never done this before, never had any reason to do this before, and he’s nervous he’ll mess it up. But Gordon’s right.

“Okay,” he finally says. “But if this goes badly, I’m going to Mars for the next few months.”

“Understandable,” Gordon says with a straight face. “It won’t, though.”

“Just in case, though, I’m gonna call Captain Taylor.”

“He won’t remember which one of us you are, but go for it,” Gordon says.

“Even better,” Alan says. “He can’t tell anyone I’m there if he doesn’t remember my name.”

Gordon snorts. “Good luck with that.”

“Thanks,” Alan says, standing up. “You need anything?”

“A pizza,” Gordon says. “That Grandma doesn’t touch. At all.”

“I think Virgil was planning on grilling,” Alan says.

“Oh, thank God,” Gordon says, obviously relieved. “Then no, I’m good. Go, and don’t talk yourself out of it, or I’ll never let you hear the end of it. I’ll bring Kayo in on it, don’t think I won’t.”

“Okay, okay,” Alan says hastily. “I’ll do it, just don’t tell her. Or anyone, please.”

“Ask him and I won’t,” Gordon says. “Oh, and don’t tell anyone about me walking, either, I want to surprise them.”

“You got it,” Alan says, grinning. “Let me know how that goes.”

“Back at you.”

Alan heads straight to his room and drops on the floor, right where he usually sleeps, letting out a long breath. He feels a bit better, but he’s still anxious. There’s so many ways this could go wrong and he doesn’t know if he’s really brave enough to do it.

His phone vibrates at that second and he jumps, startled. He rolls his eyes at himself, his heart pounding, and grabs it, lifting it to his face to see a text message.

 **Brandon:** we still on for 2nite? have thunderbirds gone?

Alan snorts. He’s instantly less nervous, which is absolutely ridiculous and stupid and sappy, and he does not know how to deal with it at _all_.

This is going to go very, _very_ badly.

He lifts his phone and taps out a response.

 **Alan:** thunderbirds have not gone anywhere yet so yeah i’ll be on in an hour  
**Brandon:** hell yea! see ya then al

Alan stares at his phone for a long moment, then groans. Yeah. He’s totally screwed. Totally, incredibly screwed.

_Help._

**Author's Note:**

> My [tumblr](http://drdone.tumblr.com) if ya wanna hit me up with prompts or yell about the show.


End file.
